I am interested in purchasing a Minka-Aire smart fan F467L-BNW Concept III 54". However, it does not work directly with Apple HomeKit. I was wondering, is there a viable solution to allow HomeKit to control the Minka-Aire smart fan directly? Is that solution a software solution or hardware solution or both if it exists? Will it be supported long term? Thanks in advance.
I currently have the Bond Bridge connected to Home Assistant via the Bond Integration. Home Assistant exposes its devices/entities (which you define category classes) via their build-it HomeBridge option to my HomeKit environment. Through this ‘pipeline’, the Bond FANs are controllable via HomeKit.
So you end up with:
FANs <–> Bond Bridge <–> Home Assistant (native) <---- HA (homebridge) <—> HomeKit
Thank you for your response! So, it appears that there is some software connectivity involved but at least HomeKit can function to control Bond FANs such as the Minka-Aire. It is a little difficult to tell how the software apps work together but is the functionality as simple as adding a HA plug-in to the HomeKit app? Or, does HomeKit simply communicate with the HA Home bridge (app?), which communicates with HA native (app?), which communicates with Bond bridge (app?), which communicates with the fan device. I haven’t used these software bridges previously, so I’m uncertain about their format.
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Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you.
It is simply this… HomeKit Hub (insert your apple device) talks with Home Assistant (HA) via various HA integration modules. Home Assistant talks with Bond Bridge (via HA integration module). Bond Bridge talks with whatever you need.
You can get started with Home Assistant via a raspberry pi or there are several other options listed here: Installation - Home Assistant
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No worries. Thank you for following up. It is greatly appreciated. Also, your advice and the HA installation site are a wealth of information. This information will assist me substantially in installing HA and adapting my fans to communicate between Bond Bridge and HomeKit. If I run into any issues, I will reach out again.
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